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openness

Board and chipmaker Via is gearing up toward releasing Linux driver source code and product documentation for its popular x86-compatible chipsets and peripherals. The company has launched a website where Ubuntu 8.04 and SUSE 10 binary graphics drivers can be downloaded, with source code and documentation to follow, it says.

In my last post I mentioned Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). Many people don’t know what FLOSS is, but it’s really quite simple. FLOSS is software that anybody can see and that they are free to change to suit their needs. FLOSS is programs that that don’t cost an arm and a leg and a first born son. Examples are Linux, OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Apache Web Server, MySQL, and many more.

"Openness" may be reaching hyperbolic proportions in Silicon Valley, but the idea is relatively good natured at heart. The practice is rooted in the notion that sharing various assets (i.e., underlying code, operating and communication standards) benefits both consumers and businesses. However, one could argue that the current fad of openness is little more than a Trojan horse

Along with transparency and consensus, a third key open source value is openness...Openness means the simple availability of the resource. All the resource. When someone violates openness, the rent is obvious. Users route around it, almost automatically, and condemn those who violate the principle

Presidential candidate Ron Paul's "donation feed" is reminiscent of the somewhat addictive "newsfeed" on social networking site Facebook, and it appears to have the effect of increasing donations. In a society where privacy is shrinking, it seems many embrace the idea of sharing more information, not less.